Cloud computing has quickly found itself sitting at the big boy table, after being known as one of the new trendy kids on the block. Through the use of cloud computing businesses of all sizes are now able to accelerate and scale at faster rates than ever before, while also having the ability to lower costs and increase productivity in the process.

As often as the word ‘cloud computing‘ is thrown around, it’s not something that’s very well understood across the masses. To help with this process, today we are going to look at what cloud computing is and also dive into some fascinating facts that make it one of the most desirable and sought-after solutions in both online and offline business in the world today.

What is Cloud Computing and Why Is It So Important?

To best explain what cloud computing is, and how it works, we can simply refer to Amazon, which is now one of the largest hosting companies in the world today. On their cloud computing resource page, they describe it as “Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of compute power, database storage, applications, and other IT resources through a cloud services platform via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.”.

However, as fun as it is to read text on something as complicated as cloud computer, visuals are much better. So here is a video to further explain what cloud computing is and how it works.

While cloud computing is quickly being adapted into most businesses and brands, it’s also making it’s way into the world of web hosting as well. With shared, virtual and dedicated hosting plans being the norm for creating a new website or blog, cloud hosting is not only the latest trend, it’s also often more cost-effective and powerful as well. One company that has been focusing ‘only on cloud hosting’ solutions for a while now, is JustCloud.

Mind Blowing Stats About Cloud Computing and How Big It Really Is

Now that you have a better understanding on what cloud hosting is and why it’s quickly become such an important component of the internet and businesses around the world, let’s now take a look at some of the crazy numbers floating around in the cloud. As more businesses continue to implement cloud computing into their day to day operations, is it only a matter of time before we see all data and storage hosting focused solely on the cloud? Special thanks to iCorps for their collection of stats, which can be found below.

Savings and Productivity Benefits of the Cloud:

Cloud Computing is up to 40 times more cost effective for an SMB, compared to running its own IT system.

70% of businesses report that they’ve been able to reinvest funds back into their business as a result of moving to the cloud.

The Cloud and Security/Privacy:

In 2016, 77% of companies plan to increase cloud security expenditures for mobile and cloud-based services.

94% of SMBs have experienced security benefits in the cloud that they didn’t have with their on-premises service

The Cloud Benefits for SMBs:

Recovery times for SMB are four times faster for businesses using cloud computing when compared to those not utilizing cloud services.

For SMB, energy use and carbon emissions could be cut by 90% by using cloud computing, saving the environment and energy costs.

Cloud Market Predictions and Stats:

90% of Microsoft’s Research & Development budget will be used to improve cloud technology and security services in 2016.

By 2018, at least 30% of service-centric companies will move the majority of their ERP applications to the cloud.

Experts predict that 40 zettabytes, or 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of data will be held in the cloud by 2020.

It’s predicted that 78% of U.S. small businesses will have fully adopted cloud computing by 2020.

Now that you’ve seen what’s possible through the use of cloud computing, are you ready to adapt these same methods into your own brand or business? If not, you might just continue to find your competition moving past you!